^ On
a 01 August:2010 The
Pope's prayer intentions for August 2010:
General: The Unemployed and the Homeless — That those who
are without work or homes, or who are otherwise in serious need, may find
understanding and welcome, as well as concrete help in overcoming their
difficulties.
Missionary: Victims of Discrimination, Hunger and Forced Emigration
— That the Church may be a “home” for all people, ready to open
its doors to any who are suffering from racial or religious discrimination,
hunger, or wars forcing them to emigrate to other countries. —(091216)2009 The Pope's prayer intentions for August 2009: General: That public opinion may be more aware of the problem
of millions of displaced persons and refugees and that concrete solutions
may be found for their often tragic situation. Mission: That
those Christians who are discriminated against and persecuted in many Countries
because of the name of Christ may have their human rights, equality and
religious freedom recognized, in order to be able to live and profess their
own faith freely.2002 The UN releases its report
on Jenin, about Illegal Israeli actions in Occupied East
Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory from
the beginning of March to 07 May 2002. It is mainly about human rights violations
in the Jenin refugee camp (03 to 18 April 2002). The UN investigation was
opposed by Israel, which denied access to Jenin and the West Bank. 2002 Chinese girl Yukun Jia, 12 [photo >],
is found missing, together with her luggage, from her group of some 26 Chinese
kids from three Beijing schools, accompanied by half-a-dozen adults, just
arrived at 11:00 from China at San Francisco International Airport on their
way to a US Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Two days later it is discovered
that relatives she has in Massachusetts came for her, took her as soon as
she cleared Customs, and that she is safe and happy with them. She had had
to deny having any relatives or friends in the US in order to be allowed
to leave China.2001 In Azerbaidjan a law goes into
effect switching the alphabet from Cyrillic to an Aseri Latin.2001
Derek Zavislake, owner of a small Toronto coffee shop, reports that he has
received a bill for C$2.4 billion (US$1.6 billion) from Canada's postal
service for his coffee beans mailings, a computer error.2000
A US military court in Germany sentenced Army Staff Sgt. Frank Ronghi to
life in prison without parole for sexually assaulting and killing Merita
Shabiu, an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl, while on peacekeeping duty
in Kosovo.

^1997 Boeing's management not equal to its purchase of McDonnell-Douglas Boeing purchases its archrival, McDonnell-Douglas.
The deal, valued at $16.3 billion, seemingly leaves Boeing as the unchallenged
king of commercial aircraft production. Investors initially bid Boeing’s
stock as high as $60.50 shortly before the deal is closed. However, with
a downturn in orders from Asia, Boeing’s stock sank to a low of $43 in October
1997. The New York Times at the time cited Wall Street’s fears about management’s
ability to ease the workforce woes and production delays that had left the
company with a backlog of orders.

1996 In a political victory for President Clinton, a
federal jury in Little Rock, Ark., acquitted two Arkansas bankers of misapplying
bank funds and conspiracy to boost his political career. (The jury deadlocked
on seven other counts.) 1996 At the Atlanta Olympics,
Michael Johnson broke his world track record by more than three-tenths of
a second, winning the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds.1995
Egipto y Jordania sellan en Alejandría su reconciliación tras cinco años
de crisis en sus relaciones como consecuencia de la guerra del Golfo. 1995 Westinghouse Electric Corporation buys CBS for $5.4
billion. Founded in 1886, Westinghouse was primarily a power company before
making a play to become a media power.1994 Llamamiento
a la reconciliación germano-polaca de los presidentes de ambos países, Roman
Herzog y Lech Walesa, en Varsovia.

^
1994 FCC auction for paging frequencies
The Federal Communications Commission auctions off ten licenses for
advanced paging and messaging and sold portions of the airwaves for
interactive television services on 01 01 August994. The auction brought
in more than 10 times what the agency had expected, indicating the
rapidly accelerating demand of both businesses and consumers for handheld
computers, pagers, and other wireless devices.

1994 Pope's $8.75 million book advance
Newspapers report that publishing house
Alfred A. Knopf will pay Pope John Paul II a record-breaking $8.75
million advance for his new book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope.
The book, a collection of essays addressing moral and theological
questions, would become a bestseller. The figure exceeded the previous
record set when Random House paid Army General Colin Powell some $6
million for his autobiography, My American Journey, which
became one of the fastest selling books in America.
Other multimillion-dollar book deals in the early 1990s included autobiographies
of Ronald Reagan and Marlon Brando. Oprah Winfrey also received a
multimillion-dollar advance for her autobiography, but she withdrew
from the deal in 1993.

1994 Squirrel crashes NASDAQ computers. NASDAQ's computer-based
trading network went down temporarily when a squirrel caused a power outage.
Although the stoppage lasts only 34 minutes, it infuriates brokers because
the system already crashed twice in the previous month.

1990 Iraq pulls out of talks with Kuwait
1990 IBM sells its typewriter and keyboard businesses. The move
signaled IBM's increasing focus on the personal computer market. IBM also
discontinued production of several of its PS/2 systems due to poor sales. 1990 Ashton Tate released a new version of its software
package, dBase IV. Ashton Tate had dominated the database market in the
1980s but began to slide in the 1990s. At the height of the company's success
in the mid-1980s, founder George Tate died of a heart attack at his desk.
1987 Crossbow flight record (2,005 yds 1'9") set
by Harry Drake in Nevada

^1975 Helsinki Pact is signed by 35 nations
A 35-nation summit in Helsinki, Finland,
concluded with the signing of an accord dealing with European security,
human rights and East-West contacts.
The United States, the Soviet Union, Canada and every European nation
(except Albania) sign the Helsinki Final Act, on the last day of the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). The act was
intended to revive the sagging spirit of detente between the Soviet
Union and the United States and its allies. During Richard M. Nixon's
presidency, he and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger fashioned
a foreign policy toward the Soviet Union that came to be known as
"detente"  literally, a lessening of tensions between Russia
and America. The policy enjoyed some success during the early 1970s,
as Nixon visited the Soviet Union and discussions about arms reduction
began. By the summer of 1975, however, the spirit of detente was flagging.
Nixon resigned in disgrace in 01 August974 over the Watergate scandal.
The United States withdrew from Vietnam without securing victory;
in April 1975, South Vietnam fell to communist forces. Progress on
arms reduction talks with the Soviets came to a standstill. In July
1975, however, the Soviet Union and the United States attempted to
reinvigorate the policy of detente by calling the CSCE in Helsinki.
On 01 August the attendees signed
the Helsinki Final Act. The act established the CSCE as an ongoing
consultative organization, and set out a number of issues (grouped
together in what came to be known as "baskets") to be discussed in
the coming months and years. These included economic and trade issues,
arms reduction, and the protection of human rights. For a brief moment,
detente seemed to have been revived, but the CSCE soon became the
cause for heated debates between the United States and the Soviet
Union, primarily over the issue of human rights in Russia. After the
signing of the Helsinki Final Act, dissidents and reformers in the
Soviet Union formed what was known as the Helsinki Group, a watchdog
organization to monitor the Russian government's adherence to the
protection of human rights. The Soviets crushed the Helsinki Group,
arresting many of its top leaders. Human rights groups in the United
States and elsewhere loudly protested the Soviet actions. The US government
criticized the Russians for not adhering to the spirit of the Helsinki
agreement. The Soviets resented what they referred to as intrusions
into their domestic matters. By mid-1978, the CSCE ceased to function
in any important sense. It was revived by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
in the 1980s, and served as a foundation for his policy of closer
and friendlier relations with the United States. 
Representantes de 35 Estados de Europa y América firman el acta final
de la Conferencia de Helsinki, tratado que regula las relaciones entre
países con regímenes políticos diversos y protege los derechos humanos
y las libertades individuales.

^1964 North Vietnamese accuse South Vietnam and US of
attack The North
Vietnamese government accuses South Vietnam and the United States
of having authorized attacks on Hon Me and Hon Ngu, two of their islands
in the Tonkin Gulf. The North Vietnamese were partly correct; the
attacks, conducted just after midnight on 30 July, were part of a
covert operation called Oplan 34A, which involved raids by South Vietnamese
commandos operating under American orders against North Vietnamese
coastal and island installations. Although American forces were not
directly involved in the actual raids, US Navy ships were on station
to conduct electronic surveillance and monitor North Vietnamese defense
responses under another program called Operation De Soto.
The Oplan 34A attacks played a major role in events that led to what
became known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. On 02 August North Vietnamese
patrol boats attacked the destroyer USS Maddox which was conducting
a De Soto mission in the area. Two days after the first attack, there
was another incident that still remains unclear. The Maddox, joined
by destroyer USS C. Turner Joy, engaged what were thought at the time
to be more attacking North Vietnamese patrol boats. Although it was
questionable whether the second attack actually happened or not, the
incident provided the rationale for retaliatory air attacks against
the North Vietnamese and the subsequent Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which
became the basis for the initial escalation of the war in Vietnam
and ultimately the insertion of US combat troops into the area. On
this same day, in 1969, the US command in Saigon announces that 27
American aircraft were lost in the previous week, bringing the total
losses of aircraft in the conflict to date to 5690.

1961 Whitney Young Jr named executive director of National
Urban League 1960 Benin (Dahomey) gains independence
from France 1958 Las tropas estadounidenses se retiran
del territorio cubano. (???)1958 US 1st class postage
up to $0.04 (had been $0.03 for 26 years) 1957 The
United States and Canada reached agreement to create the North American
Air Defense Command.1954 The Geneva Accords divide
Vietnam into two countries at the 17th parallel. US complicity in the overthrow
of South Vietnam's president made it impossible to stay uninvolved in the
war.1954 Italia ratifica el tratado sobre la Comunidad
Defensiva Europea. 1953 Northern Rhodesia becomes
part of Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland.1950
La URSS se reintegra al Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU.
1950 Territory of Guam created 1950 Lead
elements of the US 2nd Infantry Division arrive in Korea from the United
States.1946 Los griegos se manifiestan mediante
referéndum a favor del regreso del rey Jorge II. 1946
US President Truman establishes Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) 1946
US President Truman signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing
the scholarships named for Sen. William J. Fulbright. In 1946, the Atomic
Energy Commission was established.1944 Adam Clayton
Powell Jr. [29 Nov 1908 – 04 Apr 1972] is elected 1st Black congressman
from North-East US.

^1944 Warsaw uprising begins
During World War II, an advance Soviet armored column under General
Konstantin Rokossovski reaches the Vistula River along the eastern
suburb of Warsaw, prompting the Poles in the city to launch a major
uprising against the Nazi occupation. The revolt is spearheaded by
Polish General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, commander of the Home Army,
an underground resistance group made up of some 40'000 poorly supplied
soldiers. In addition to accelerating
the liberation of Warsaw, the Home Army, which has ties with the Polish
government-in-exile in London and is anti-Communist in its ideology,
hopes to gain at least partial control of Warsaw before the Soviets
arrive. Although the Poles in
Warsaw would win early gains, and Soviet conquest of the city was
inevitable, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered his authorities to crush
the uprising at all cost. The elite Nazi SS directed the German defense
force, which included the Kaminiski Brigade of Russian prisoners and
the Dirlewanger Brigade of German convicts. In brutal street fighting,
the Poles were gradually overcome by the superior German weaponry.
As the rebels were slowly suppressed, the Nazis deliberately razed
large portions of the city and massacred large numbers of civilians.
Meanwhile, the Red Army gained several
bridgeheads across the Vistula River, but made no efforts to aid the
rebels in Warsaw. The British and Americans asked the Soviets to allow
them to drop much-need supplies to the Home Army, and the Soviets
agreed; although they explained that they were too busy re-supplying
their own units to offer assistance themselves. Only a fraction of
the supplies from the West ever reached the parts of Warsaw controlled
by the Home Army, and the rebels and the city’s citizens soon ran
out of medical supplies, food, and eventually water.
Finally, on October 2, the surviving insurgents, including Bor-Komorowski,
surrendered. During the sixty-three-day ordeal, three-fourths of the
Home Army had perished, along with 200'000 civilians. As a testament
to the savagery of the fighting, the Germans had also suffered high
casualties: 10'000 killed, 9000 wounded, and 7000 missing. Over the
next few months, German demolition squads destroyed what buildings
remained intact in Warsaw, and all of its great treasures were looted
or burned. The Red Army remained
dormant outside of Warsaw until January of 1945, when the final Soviet
offensive against Germany commenced. Warsaw, a city in ruins, was
"liberated" on 17 January 17.

^1942 Montgomery takes North Africa command
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery
takes command of the British Eighth Army in North Africa. In November,
his decisive victory over German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at the
Battle of El Alamein would push the Germans out of North Africa, and
helped change the momentum of World War II. For his part in turning
the tide of the war against the Axis, Montgomery was made a viscount
with the title "Montgomery of Alamein." In 1945, as British Commander
of Northern Europe, "Monty" officially accepted the surrender of several
German armies.

1942 Ensign Henry C. White, while flying a J4F Widgeon
plane, sinks U-166 as it approaches the Mississippi River, the first U-boat
sunk by the US Coast Guard.1941 Grumman TBF Avenger
torpedo plane makes its first flight.1939 Synthetic vitamin
K is produced for the first time.1937 Buchenwald
concentration camp in Germany becomes operational.1936
The Olympic games opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf
Hitler. 1933 National Recovery Administration (NRA)
established.1928 Diputados croatas fundan un Parlamento
separatista del resto de Yugoslavia.1927 Se produce
el primer alzamiento comunista en China, en Nantchang.

^1914 The Great War erupts
Four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Germany and Russia
declare war against each other, France mobilizes, and the first German army
units cross into Luxembourg in preparation for the German invasion of France.
In addition to the countries already mentioned, Belgium also mobilizes.
Shots are fired between French and German border patrols. Italy declares
neutrality. Over the next four days,
Russia, France, Belgium, and Great Britain would all line up against Austria-Hungary
and Germany, and Germany would launch its invasion of Belgium.
On 28 June 1914, in an event that is widely regarded as sparking the outbreak
of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire,
was shot to death with his wife by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo,
Bosnia. Ferdinand had been inspecting his uncle's imperial armed forces
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the threat of Serbian nationalists who
wanted these Austro-Hungarian possessions to join newly independent Serbia..
Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government
for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling
the problem of Slavic nationalism once and for all. However, as Russia supported
Serbia, an Austria-Hungary declaration of war was delayed until its leaders
received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would
support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention.
On 28 July Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace
between Europe's great powers collapsed. On 29 July Austro-Hungarian forces
began to shell the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and Russia, Serbia's ally,
ordered a troop mobilization against Austria-Hungary. On 01 August the Germans
invade Luxembourg. France, allied with Russia, began to mobilize on 01 August.
France and Germany declared war against each other on 03 August. After crossing
through neutral Luxembourg, the Germany army invaded Belgium on the night
of August 3-4, prompting Great Britain, Belgium's ally, to declare war against
Germany. For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the outbreak of
war with jubilation. Most patriotically assumed that their country would
be victorious within months. Italy declared
neutrality. Four days after Austria-Hungary
declared war on Serbia, Germany and Russia declare war against each other,
France orders a general mobilization, and the first German army units cross
into Luxembourg in preparation for the German invasion of France. During
the next three days, Russia, France, Belgium, and Great Britain all lined
up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and the German army invaded Belgium.
The "Great War" that ensued was one of unprecedented destruction and loss
of life, resulting in the deaths of some 20 million soldiers and civilians.
Of the initial belligerents, Germany was
most prepared for the outbreak of hostilities, and its military leaders
had formatted a sophisticated military strategy known as the "Schlieffen
Plan," which envisioned the conquest of France through a great arcing offensive
through Belgium and into northern France. Russia, slow to mobilize, was
to be kept occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces while Germany attacked France.
The Schlieffen Plan was nearly successful, but in early September the French
rallied and halted the German advance at the bloody Battle of the Marne
near Paris.
Though the Germans enjoyed greater success on the Eastern Front, the conflict’s
first major battle along the Marne effectively decided the course of the
war on the Western Front. World War I would be a terrible war of attrition,
won by whichever side was willing to commit the greater number of men and
resources to the lethal trenches.
By the end of 1914, well over a million soldiers of various nationalities
had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and neither for the Allies
nor the Central Powers was a final victory in sight. On the western front
 the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium
 the combatants settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of
attrition. In 1915, the Allies attempted to break the stalemate with an
amphibious invasion of Turkey, which had joined the Central Powers in October
1914, but after heavy bloodshed the Allies were forced to retreat in early
1916. The year 1916 saw great offensives
by Germany and Britain along the western front, but neither side accomplished
a decisive victory. In the east, Germany was more successful, and the disorganized
Russian army suffered terrible losses, spurring the outbreak of the Russian
Revolution in 1917. By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks had seized power
in Russia and immediately set about negotiating peace with Germany. In 1918,
the infusion of American troops and resources into the western front finally
tipped the scale in the Allies' favor. Bereft of manpower and supplies and
faced with an imminent invasion, Germany signed an armistice agreement with
the Allies in November 1918. World
War I was known as the "war to end all wars" because of the great slaughter
and destruction it caused. Unfortunately, the peace treaty that officially
ended the conflict  the Treaty of Versailles of 1919  forced
punitive terms on Germany that destabilized Europe and laid the groundwork
for World War II.  Alemania
declara la guerra a Rusia, invade Luxemburgo y presenta un ultimátum
a Bélgica. Francia ordena la movilización general.

1907 Bank of Italy opens 1st branch at 3433 Mission
Street, SF.1903 First cross-country auto trip, from
New York City to San Francisco, is completed on this day. The trail was
blazed by a Packard, which finished in a mere fifty-two days.1900
El médico cubano Carlos Finlay hace público su descubrimiento del mosquito
propagador de la fiebre amarilla. 1896 George Samuelson
completes rowing the Atlantic (NY to England)1893
A machine for making shredded wheat breakfast cereal is patented. 1880 Sir Frederick Roberts frees the British Afghanistan
garrison of Kandahar from Afghan rebels.1876 Colorado
becomes 38th state of US.1873 Inventor Andrew S.
Hallidie successfully tests a cable car he had designed for the city of
San Francisco. The cable cars would be operated by Hallidie's Clay Street
Hill Railroad Company.1872 The first long-distance
gas pipeline in the US is completed. Designed for natural gas, the two-inch
pipe ran 8 km from Newton Wells to Titusville, Pennsylvania.1868
Rusia vende Alaska a los Estados Unidos. [fecha???]1867
Blacks vote for 1st time in a state election in South (Tenn)

^1864 Sheridan takes command of Union Army of Shenandoah.
Union General Ulysses S. Grant appoints
General Philip H. Sheridan commander of the Army of the Shenandoah.
Within a few months, Sheridan drove a Confederate force from the Shenandoah
Valley and destroyed nearly all possible sources of Rebel supplies,
helping to seal the fate of the Confederacy. In the summer of 1864,
Confederate General Robert E. Lee had sent part of his army at Petersburg,
Virginia, commanded by Jubal Early, to harass Federal units in the
area of the Shenandoah and threaten Washington DC. The Confederates
had used the same strategy in 1862, when General Thomas J. "Stonewall"
Jackson effectively relieved Union pressure on Richmond with a campaign
in the Shenandoah. In July, Early marched his army through the valley
and down the Potomac to the outskirts of Washington, forcing Grant
to take some of his troops away from the Petersburg defenses and protect
the nation's capital. Frustrated by the inability of Generals Franz
Sigel and David Hunter to effectively deal with Early's force in the
Shenandoah, Grant turned to General Philip Sheridan, a skilled general
who served with him in the west before Grant became the overall commander
of Union forces in early 1864. Surprisingly, Grant had placed Sheridan,
an effective infantry leader, in charge of the Army of the Potomac's
cavalry division for the campaign against Lee. Now Grant handed Sheridan
command of the Army of the Shenandoah, comprising of 40'000 soldiers
that included many demoralized veterans of the summer campaign. Sheridan
wasted little time, beginning an offensive in September that routed
Early's army and then destroyed most of the agricultural resources
of the region. Although this victory is not as famous as Union General
William T. Sherman's march through Georgia, which took place at the
same time, it may have been even more complete. The Shenandoah Valley,
so important throughout the war, was rendered useless to the Confederacy
by the end of the fall.

1863 Cavalry action near Brandy Station  End of
Gettysburg Campaign1863 Federal cavalry advance
from Witteburg on a campaign to capture Little Rock, Arkansas 1863
Siege of Fort Wagner, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina continues 1861 Captain John Baylor claims most of the territories
of Arizona and New Mexico for the Confederacy after he routs a Union force
at Fort Fillmore in southern New Mexico. 1861 Brazil
recognizes Confederate States of America. 1838
Emancipation of British slaves on Bahamas 1834
Slavery abolished in British empire  Abolición de la esclavitud en
todos los territorios dependientes de Gran Bretaña.1801
The US schooner Enterprise captures the Barbary cruiser Tripoli.1798  14 thermidor an VI  La flotte française
est détruite par Nelson dans la rade d’Aboukir.  Battle of
the Nile at Abu Qir Bay, near Alexandria, Egypt: Admiral Horatio
Nelson routs the French fleet; Napoléon and his army are stranded
in Egypt.1794  14 thermidor an II  La
Convention suspend le Tribunal révolutionnaire et Fouquier est arrêté. C'est
la fin de la Terreur. 1794 Whiskey Rebellion begins.
1791 Largest private emancipation in US history:
Robert Carter III, a Virginia plantation owner, frees all 500 of his slaves.1790 The first enumeration by the US Census Bureau is
completed. It shows a population of 3'939'326 located in 16 states and the
Ohio territory. Virginia is the most populous state with 747'610 inhabitants.
The census compilation cost $44,377.1789 US’s First Tarriff
Legislation Already mindful of the markets, the freshly formed
United States Government wheeled into action in 1789, passing the nation’s
first tariff legislation. The tariff was designed to protect America’s burgeoning
interests in foreign trade.1774 Oxygen is isolated
from air by chemist Carl Wilhelm and scientist Joseph Priestly.1772
Primer desmembramiento y reparto de Polonia, en provecho de Prusia, Rusia
y Austria.1759 Battle of Minden, Germany: British
and Hanoverian armies defeat the French.1740 Thomas
Arne's song "Rule Britannia" is performed for the first time.1704
Guerra de Sucesión española: La escuadra anglo-holandesa, mandada por el
contraalmirante Rooke, comienza el asedio de Gibraltar.1689
James II's 15-week siege of Londonderry, Ireland, ends in failure.1664 The Turkish army is defeated by French and German
troops at St. Gotthard, Hungary.1619 The first
Blacks (20) in British American colonies land at Jamestown, Virginia.

^1498 Columbus lands in South America
Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sets
foot on the American mainland for the first time, at the Paria Peninsula
in present-day Venezuela. Thinking it an island, he christened it Isla Santa
and claimed it for Spain. Columbus
was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. Little is known of his early life, but
he worked as a seaman and then a sailing entrepreneur. He became obsessed
with the possibility of pioneering a western sea route to Cathay (China),
India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. At the time, Europeans
knew no direct sea route to southern Asia, and the route via Egypt and the
Red Sea was closed to Europeans by the Ottoman Empire, as were many land
routes. Contrary to popular legend, educated Europeans of Columbus' day
did believe that the world was round, as argued by St. Isidore in the seventh
century. However, Columbus, and most
others, underestimated the world's size, calculating that East Asia must
lie approximately where North America sits on the globe (they did not yet
know that the Pacific Ocean existed). With only the Atlantic Ocean, he thought,
lying between Europe and the riches of the East Indies, Columbus met with
King John II of Portugal and tried to persuade him to back his "Enterprise
of the Indies," as he called his plan. He was rebuffed and went to Spain,
where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella also rejected him at least twice.
However, after the Spanish conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada in
January 1492, the Spanish monarchs, flush with victory, agreed to support
his voyage. On 03 01 August492, Columbus
set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa María, the
Pinta, and the Niña. On 12 October the expedition sighted land, probably
Watling Island in the Bahamas, and went ashore the same day, claiming it
for Spain. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was
mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which
Columbus thought might be Japan. He established a small colony there with
39 of his men. The explorer returned
to Spain with gold, spices, and "Indian" captives in March 1493 and was
received with the highest honors by the Spanish court. He was given the
title "admiral of the ocean sea," and a second expedition was promptly organized.
He was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set
up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century. Fitted out
with a large fleet of 17 ships with 1500 colonists aboard, Columbus set
out from Cádiz in September 1493 on his second voyage to the New World.
Landfall was made in the Lesser Antilles in November. Returning to Hispaniola,
he found the men he left there slaughtered by the natives, and he founded
a second colony. Sailing on, he explored Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and numerous
smaller islands in the Caribbean. Columbus returned to Spain in June 1496
and was greeted less warmly, as the yield from the second voyage had fallen
well short of its costs. Isabella and Ferdinand, still greedy for the riches
of the East, agreed to a smaller third voyage and instructed Columbus to
find a strait to India. In May 1498,
Columbus left Spain with six ships, three filled with colonists and three
with provisions for the colony on Hispaniola. This time, he made landfall
on Trinidad. He entered the Gulf of Paria in Venezuela and planted the Spanish
flag in South America on 01 01 August498. He explored the Orinoco River
of Venezuela and, given its scope, soon realized he had stumbled upon another
continent. Columbus, a deeply religious man, decided after careful thought
that Venezuela was the outer regions of the Garden of Eden. Returning to
Hispaniola, he found that conditions on the island had deteriorated under
the rule of his brothers, Diego and Bartholomew. Columbus' efforts to restore
order were marked by brutality, and his rule came to be deeply resented
by both the colonists and the native Taino chiefs.
In 1500, Spanish chief justice Francisco de Bobadilla arrived at Hispaniola,
sent by Isabella and Ferdinand to investigate complaints, and Columbus and
his brothers were sent back to Spain in chains. He was immediately released
upon his return, and Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to finance a fourth voyage,
in which he was to search for the earthly paradise and the realms of gold
said to lie nearby. He was also to continue looking for a passage to India.
In May 1502, Columbus left Cádiz on his fourth and final voyage to the New
World. After returning to Hispaniola, against his patrons' wishes, he explored
the coast of Central America looking for a strait and for gold. Attempting
to return to Hispaniola, his ships, in poor condition, had to be beached
on Jamaica. Columbus and his men were marooned, but two of his captains
succeed in canoeing the 720 km to Hispaniola. Columbus was a castaway on
Jamaica for a year before a rescue ship arrived.
In November 1504, Columbus returned to Spain. Queen Isabella, his chief
patron, died less than three weeks later. Although Columbus enjoyed substantial
revenue from Hispaniola gold during the last years of his life, he repeatedly
attempted (unsuccessfully) to gain an audience with King Ferdinand, whom
he felt owed him further redress. Columbus died in Valladolid on 20 May
1506, without realizing the great scope of his achievement: He had discovered
for Europe the New World, whose riches over the next century would help
make Spain the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.

2005
Jean-Louis de Bénédict, 53, and Ludovic Piasentin, 51, pilots of
a Canadair firefighting plane which crashes at a forest fire at Calenzana,
Corsica, France.2005 Fahd
bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, born in 1923, king and nominal ruler of
Saudi Arabia, incapacitated since a stroke in 1995. His half-brother, Abdullah
bin Abdulaziz al-Saud [1924~], crown prince and de facto regent, succeeds
him as king. Fahd was one of the many (50 to 200) sons of the founder of
modern Saudi Arabia, king Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al-Saud (“Ibn
Saud”) [1880 – 09 Nov 1953], who was succeeded by two other
sons before Fahd: first Faisal
bin Abdelaziz Al Saud [1906 – 25 Mar 1975] who was assassinated by
a half-brother's son Faisal
bin Musad bin Abdel Aziz [04 Apr 1944 – 1975], then Khalid
bin Abdul Aziz [1912 – 13 Jun 1982] who allowed Fahd to be the de
facto ruler.2005 Lance-Cpl. Roger D. Castleberry Jr., 26; Cpl.
Jeffrey A. Boskovitch, 25; Sgt. David J. Coullard, 32; lance-Cpl. Daniel
Nathan Deyarmin [30 Jul 1983–]; Lance Cpl. Brian P. Montgomery, 26;
and Sgt. Nathaniel S. Rock, 26; US Marine reservists, by small
arms fire near Haditha, Iraq.2005 A suicide car bomber and
Sgt. James R. Graham III, 25, a US Marine reservist, near Hit,
Iraq. 2004
At least 364 persons in noon fire at the multilevel Ycua Bolaños
supermarket on the outskirts of Asunción, Paraguay. Some 300 are
injured. 2004 (Sunday) Eleven Christians, in Iraq,
by bombs after 18:00 in two churches in the Karada, one in the Dora, one
in the New Baghdad neighborhoods of Baghdad, and one in Mosul. More than
50 persons are injured. There are in Iraq some 750'000 Christians amid some
21 million Muslims.2004 Six persons including suicide car bomber,
at 08:00 outside the Summar police station in Mosul, Iraq. 53 persons are
injured.2004 Twelve persons in fighting from late
the previous day to the early hours of today, in Fallujah, Iraq, as US marines
(who suffer no casualty), fight, with the help of aircraft, attackers armed
with mortars, machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The US says that
ten of the dead are attackers. 39 persons are wounded.2003
Some 50 persons as three-story hospital, with 115 persons inside
(most of them Russian soldiers receiving treatment, of which at least 22
are among the dead), in Mozdok, North Ossetia, Russia, collapses when a
Kamaz truck loaded with explosives pull up to a reception office building
and explodes at 19:00. 76 persons are wounded.2002 Roy Ratliff,
37 [photo >], shot twice in the head by sheriff's deputies,
at 13:00, near Lake Isabella, California. At 01:00, 160 km from there, in
the Quartz Hill area outside Lancaster, California, Ratliff, at gunpoint,
had forced Tamara Brooks, 16, out of the parked Ford Bronco of Eric Joshua
Brown (born 01 August 1984), with whom she was on a date. Ratliff blindfolded
Brown, bound him with duct tape, and tied him to a post. Then he did the
same thing with Jacqueline Marris, 17, and her date, Frank Melero Jr., 19,
who were parked in a pickup truck nearby (tying Melero to his seat in the
pickup). Then Ratliff abandoned the Saturn which he had stolen at gunpoint
on 18 July in Las Vegas from Roberta Young, 64, and her husband James Young,
69, and took of with the two kidnapped girls in the Bronco. When the Bronco
is spotted off the road in the desert near Lake Isabella, deputies shoot
at Ratliff and rescue the two girls, which he had raped and probably was
about to kill. Ratliff had a criminal record dating to the 1980s in Nebraska
and California that included prison for theft, burglary and possession of
methamphetamines. He disappeared after his parole in July 2001. He was charged
in October 2001 with raping a 19-year-old relative but was never apprehended.2002 Shani Ladani, 27, Israeli man tied up and shot in
the head in the morning. A resident of the Olesh moshav in the Sharon area,
Ladani was taken from his place of work, a factory in the Gshuri industrial
zone, at the 1967 Green Line on the Israeli side. Most of the workers at
his factory are Palestinians from Tul Karm and surrounding villages.2001 Mohammed Sharabati, 35, Palestinian shot by Israelis
in Hebron, West Bank..2001 Nazem Abu Gharbieh, 47, from Ramallah,
and Ahmed Shawkat Salah, 40, from al-Khader, Palestinians suspected
of collaboration with Israel, shot by Palestinians from the Al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigade.

^2000 Du Shugui, 44, executed (presumably
by a bullet to the back of the head) He
was a policeman in Bazhou, Hebei province, China. On 04 June 2000,
in a argument over a near-collision, he yelled: "I'm with the public
security bureau, I'm on an errand  and I don't think anyone
in Bazhou can challenge me," drew his service revolver and shot dead
a mini-van driver, an electric company maintenance man. There was
a public outry, touched off by simmering anger against the high-handedness
and brutality of local officials. Du's wife and son, who were traveling
with him at the time of the murder, were sentenced to seven years
and five years in jail for harboring a criminal after the shooting.

^1977 Stacy Moskowitz,
last victim of “Son of Sam”, who shot
her early the previous day. On
29 July 1976 at 01:00 the so-called "Son
of Sam" pulled a gun from a paper bag and fires five shots at
Donna Lauria, 18, and Jody Valenti, 19, of the Bronx while they are
were sitting in a car, talking. Lauria died and Valenti was seriously
wounded in the first in a series of shootings by the serial killer,
who terrorized New York City over the course of the next year. Once
dubbed the ".44 Caliber Killer," the Son of Sam eventually got his
name from letters he sent to both the police and famed newspaper writer
Jimmy Breslin that said, "I am a monster. I am the Son of Sam. I love
to hunt, prowling the streets looking for fair game. The weman are
prettyist of all [sic]." The
second attack came on 24 October 1976 at 03:00, when Carl Denaro and
Rosemary Keenan were shot at as they sat in a car in Queens, Keenan
was not hurt, but Denaro suffered severe skull injuries. In the evening
of 26 November 1976, A month later, Donna DeMasi, 16, and her friend
Joanne Lomino were coming home from a late movie, when the serial
killer approached, said “Do you know where...” and suddenly
pulled a gun out and fired several shots. Joanne Lomino was paralyzed
from a bullet that struck her spine, but her friend was not seriously
injured. The Son of Sam attacked again on 30 January 1977 (Christine
Freund, 26) and in the evening of 08 March 1977 (Virginia Voskerichian).
In the latter attack, witnesses provided a description of the killer:
an unattractive White man with black hair.
On 17 April 1977 at 03:00 Valentina Suriani, 18, and Alexander Esau,
20, were kissing in a parked car in the Bronx when they were shot;
both died. The publicity hit a fever pitch. Women, particularly those
with dark hair, were discouraged from traveling at night in the city.
When the Son of Sam missed his intended victims in another murder
attempt in June, vigilante groups formed across New York City looking
for the killer. His last victims
were murdered on 31 July 1977, in Brooklyn. In the early hours, Stacy
Moskowitz and Bobby Violante were kissing in a park in Brooklyn when
they were shot. Stacy died 38 hours later. Bobby recovered having
lost his left eye and 80% of the vision of his right eye.
Following up on a parking ticket that had been given out that night,
police discovered a machine gun in a car belonging to David Berkowitz
[01 Jun 1953~] of Yonkers, New York. Berkowitz was arrested on 10
August 1977. When questioned, Berkowitz confessed everything and explained
that "Sam" was his neighbor Sam Carr, an agent of the devil. Sam transmitted
his orders through his pet black Labrador. Years earlier, Berkowitz
had shot the dog, complaining that its barking was keeping him from
sleeping. After the dog recovered, Berkowitz claimed that it began
speaking to him and demanding that he kill people (later Berkowitz
said that this story was a lie). In an unusual sequence of events,
Berkowitz was allowed to plead guilty before claiming insanity and
was sentenced on 12 June 1978 to 365 years in prison. In prison, in
1987 he became to all appearances a
born-again Christian. He expresses regret, and does not want parole,
which anyhow is and will be denied to him.

1969 Miguel Labordeta, poeta español

^1966 Ramiro Martinez and 15 others shot from UT tower
by Charles Whitman, driven by brain tumor
Charles Joseph Whitman, 25, takes a stockpile of guns and ammunition
to the observatory platform atop a 100-meter tower at the University
of Texas and proceeds to shoot 46 people, killing 16. Whitman, who
had killed both his wife and mother the night before, was eventually
shot to death after courageous Austin police officers, including Ramiro
Martinez, charged up the stairs of the tower to subdue the attacker.
Whitman, a former Eagle Scout
and Marine, began to suffer serious mental problems after his mother
left his father in February 1966. On March 29, he told a psychiatrist
that he was having uncontrollable fits of anger. He purportedly even
told this doctor that he was thinking about going up to the tower
with a rifle and shooting people. Unfortunately, the doctor didn't
follow up on this red flag. On July 31, Whitman wrote a note about
his violent impulses, saying, "After my death, I wish an autopsy on
me be performed to see if there's any mental disorder." (The autopsy
would reveal a brain tumor) The note then described his hatred for
his family and his intent to kill them. That night, Whitman went to
his mother's home, where he stabbed and shot her. Upon returning to
his own home, he then stabbed his wife to death.
The following morning, Whitman heads
for the tower with several pistols and a rifle after stopping off
at a gun store to buy boxes of ammunition and a carbine. Packing food
and other supplies, he goes to the observation platform, killing the
receptionist and two tourists before unpacking his rifle and telescope
and hunting the people below. An expert marksman, Whitman was able
to hit people as far away as 500 m. For 90 minutes, he continues firing
while officers seek a chance to get a shot at him. By the end of his
rampage, 16 people are dead and another 30 injured. The University
of Texas tower would remain closed for over 30 years before reopening
in 1999.

1952 Charles Clinton Spaulding,
on his 78th birthday, one of fourteen children of a former North Carolina
slave. On 20 October 1898 Charles Spaulding, together with Black barber
John Merrick [07 Sep 1859 – 06 Aug
1919] and Black physician Aaron McDuffie Moore [06 Sep 1863 –
1923], organized the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association which
began business on 01 April 1899. Its first office rented for $2 a month.
Spaulding would later say: “When I came into the office early in the
morning, I rolled up my sleeves and swept the place as janitor. Then I rolled
down my sleeves and was an agent, and later I put on my coat and became
general manager.” The name would be changed to North
Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company on 07 April 1919. The barber
had tobacco executive Washington Duke as a regular customer, whose advice
from the barber chair helped the insurance company survive. Spaulding went
on to found two other insurance companies, a bank, and a building and loan
compasy. By 1952 the five companies had combined assets of more than $33
million.

^1943 Two US sailors as PT-109 sinks; but JFK and 10
others survive
A Japanese destroyer rams an American PT (patrol torpedo) boat, No.
109, slicing it in two. The destruction is so massive other US PT
boats in the area assume the crew is dead. Two crewmen were, in fact,
killed, but 11 survive, including Lt. John F. Kennedy.
Japanese aircraft had been on a PT boat hunt in the Solomon Islands,
bombing the PT base at Rendova Island. It was essential to the Japanese
that several of their destroyers make it to the southern tip of Kolombangara
Island to get war supplies to forces there. But the torpedo capacity
of the US PTs was a potential threat. Despite the base bombing at
Rendova, PTs set out to intercept those Japanese destroyers.
In the midst of battle, Japan's Amaqiri
hit PT-109, leaving 11 crewmen floundering in the Pacific. After five
hours of clinging to debris from the decimated PT boat, the crew made
it to a coral island. Kennedy decided to swim out to sea again, hoping
to flag down a passing US boat. None came. Kennedy began to swim back
to shore, but strong currents, and his chronic back condition, made
his return difficult. Upon reaching the island again, he fell ill.
After he recovered, the PT-109 crew
swam to a larger island, what they believed was Nauru Island, but
was in fact Cross Island. They met up with two natives from the island,
who agreed to take a message south. Kennedy carved the distress message
into a coconut shell: "Nauru Is. Native knows posit. He can pilot.
11 alive need small boat." The
message reached Lieutenant Arthur Evans, who was watching the coast
of Gomu Island, located next to an island occupied by the Japanese.
Kennedy and his crew were paddled to Gomu. A PT boat then took them
back to Rendova. Kennedy was
awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, for gallantry in action.
The coconut shell used to deliver his message found a place in history-and
in the Oval Office. PT-109, a film dramatizing this story,
starring Clift Robertson as Kennedy, opened in 1963.

1981 The rock music cable TV channel MTV makes its debut.1941 Ronald Brown, in Washington, raised in Harlem, (US
Secretary of Commerce [Clinton Administration]; Democratic National Committee
chairman: 1st Black to head a major US political party. Died on 03 April
1996, in a plane crash over Croatia.

^1941 the JeepParade magazine called it "...the Army's most intriguing
new gadget…a tiny truck which can do practically everything." During
World War I, the US Army began looking for a fast, lightweight all-terrain
vehicle, but the search did not grow urgent until early 1940. At this
time, the Axis powers had begun to score victories in Europe and Northern
Africa, intensifying the Allies’ need for an all-terrain vehicle.
The US Army issued a challenge to automotive companies, requesting
a working prototype, fit to army specifications, in just forty-nine
days. Willy’s Truck Company was the first to successfully answer the
Army’s call, and the new little truck was christened “the Jeep.” General
Dwight D. Eisenhower said that America could not have won World War
II without it. Parade was so enthusiastic about the Jeep, that, on
this day, it devoted three full pages to a feature on the vehicle.

^1892 Kin Narita and Gin Kanie in Japan
They would become famous one hundred and more years
later, as one of the oldest pairs of twins in the world. Kin said
on their 100th birthday. "We could survive because we were twins.
We need each other more than anyone else in the world." However Kin,
the first born of the two sisters, died of heart failure in January
2000. Gin reached at least her 108th birthday on 1 August 2000 (at
this writing). The two were accorded
the status of national treasures in Japan and until 1999 their birthdays
were lavished with media attention. On 1 01 August999, the pair attended
a tree planting ceremony in Sapporo, wielding pink shovels. The centenarian
twins gained national and international fame for their beaming smiles,
enormous vitality and shared longevity. They appeared on numerous
commercials, game shows, news programs and even graced the pages of
international magazines. The twins said the simplicity of their lives,
their reliance on each other and frequent walks as they grew older
contributed to their extraordinary health.

1881 Otto
Toeplitz, Jewish German mathematician who died on 15 February
1940 in Palestine to which he had managed to escape one year earlier. He
worked on infinite linear and quadratic forms. In the 1930's he developed
a general theory of infinite dimensional spaces and criticised Banach's
work as being too abstract.1875 Julio Herrera y Reissig,
poeta uruguayo.1863 Gaston Doumergue, estadista
francés.1865 Prince Napoleon Nikolaus Eugen, Swedish
artist who died on 17 01 August 1947. — more
with link to an image. 1861 Ivar
Bendixson, Swedish mathematician who died in 1935. He taught
at Stockholm, then from 1913 to 1927 he was rector of Stockholm University.
He worked on set theory and differential equations. He is best remembered
for the Poincaré-Bendixson theorem: “an integral curve which does
not end in a singular point has a limit cycle.”1856
Daniel Hernández Morillo, Peruvian painter and draftsman
who died on 23 October 1932. — more1854 Walter Launt Palmer, US painter who died on 16 April
1932.  MORE
ON PALMER AT ART 4 AUGUST
with links to images.1843 Robert Todd Lincoln (son
of US President Abraham Lincoln; would be rescued from train accident by
Edwin Booth, brother of man who assassinated President Lincoln)1837
José María Galván y Candela, Spanish painter and engraver.

^1819 Herman Melville, US novelist,
short-story writer, and poet, who would die on 28 September 1891.
He would be best known for his novels
of the sea, including his masterpiece, Moby
Dick (1851). Basically its story is simple. Captain Ahab
pursues the white whale, Moby Dick, which finally kills him. At that
level, it is an intense, superbly authentic narrative of whaling.
In the perverted grandeur of Captain Ahab and in the beauties and
terrors of the voyage of his ship, however, Melville dramatized his
deeper concerns: the equivocal defeats and triumphs of the human spirit
and its fusion of creative and murderous urges, universal metaphors
inspired by Melville's private afflictions. Other
works of Melville (which I did not find online): Mardi (1849)
which begins as a Polynesian adventure but quickly sets its hero in
pursuit of the mysterious Yillah, "all beauty and innocence," a symbolic
quest that ends in anguish and disaster.Redburn
(1849), Israel Potter (1855), , Battle-Pieces and Aspects
of the War ( poetry, 1866), John Marr, and Other Sailors;
With Some Sea-Pieces (poetry, 1888)
White-Jacket (1850) with powerful
criticism of abuses in the US Navy.Pierre
(1852), story of an artist alienated from his society.

^1815 Richard Henry Dana Dana withdrew
from Harvard College when measles weakened his eyesight, and he shipped
to California as a sailor in 1834, returning home in 1836. He studied
law and in 1840 he was admitted to the bar, and published Two
Years Before the Mast, a personal narrative presenting "the
life of a common sailor at sea as it really is" and showing the abuses
endured by his fellow sailors. His
other works include: The Seaman's Friend (or ... Manual)(1841),
a guide to the legal rights and duties of seamen.
 a scholarly edition of Henry Wheaton's Elements of International
Law (1866)  To
Cuba and Back (1859), Speeches in Stirring Times (1910),
An Autobiographical Sketch (1953). As
a lawyer, Dana aided fugitive slaves, and as US attorney for Massachusetts
(1861-66) argued before the US Supreme Court the case
of the Amy Warwick [67 US 635 (1862)]
ONLINE: Poems
and Prose Writings , Two
Years Before the Mast , Two
Years Before the Mast (another site)

^1779 Francis Scott Key, US attorney
who died on 11 January 1843, author of the Star Spangled Banner: Oh,
say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd
at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars,
thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly
streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air Gave
proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say, does
that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the
home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen thro' the
mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully
blows half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the
morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream;
'Tis the Star-Spangled Banner, O long may it wave O'er the land of
the free and the home of the brave.
Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall
stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation! Blest with
vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land Praise the Pow'r that
hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our
cause it is just, And this be our motto, "In God is our trust" And
the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the
free and the home of the brave! In
September 1814, after the burning of the city of Washington by the
British during the War of 1812, Key was sent to the British fleet
in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of his friend William Beanes,
who had been captured after the defeat of the US forces at Bladensburg,
Md. He was detained aboard ship during the shelling of Ft. McHenry,
one of the forts that successfully defended Baltimore. During the
night of the bombardment, 13 to 14 September 1814, Key's anxiety was
at high pitch, and in the morning when he saw the US flag still flying
over the fortress, he wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Released that
day, he rewrote the poem in a Baltimore hotel. It was printed anonymously
under the title “Defence of Fort M'Henry” and on 20 September 1814
was published by The Baltimore Patriot. Set to the tune of
an English drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” it soon became
popular throughout the US. It was later adopted by the army and navy
as the national anthem, and in 1931 it was officially adopted by the
US Congress as the national anthem.

Thoughts for the day : The harder you try, the better
you fail.The hardest thing to do is to disguise your feelings
when sending a large crowd of visiting relatives home.
Pride, like humility, is destroyed by one's insistence that he possesses
it.  Kenneth Bancroft Clark, US educator and psychologist.
{and if not destroyed by his insistence, it is by his wife}{Was Clark proud or
humble about his pronouncements?}.